Book Review: The Girl Who Never Was - Skylar Dorset

Title: The Girl Who Never Was
Author: Skylar Dorset
Pub Date: June 1st, 2014
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Page Count: 301

THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS is the story of Selkie Stewart, who thinks she’s a totally normal teenager growing up in Boston. Sure, her father is in an insane asylum, her mother left her on his doorstep—literally—when she was a baby, and she’s being raised by two ancient aunts who spend their time hunting gnomes in their Beacon Hill townhouse. But other than that her life is totally normal! She’s got an adventurous best friend who’s always got her back and an unrequited crush on an older boy named Ben. Just like any other teenager, right?

When Selkie goes in search of the mother she’s never known, she gets more than she bargained for. It turns out that her mother is faerie royalty, which would make Selkie a faerie princess—except for the part where her father is an ogre, which makes her only half of anything. Even more confusing, there’s a prophecy that Selkie is going to destroy the tyrannical Seelie Court, which is why her mother actually wants to kill her. Selkie has been kept hidden all her life by her adoring aunts, with the help of a Salem wizard named Will. And Ben. Because the boy she thinks she’s in love with turns out to be a faerie whose enchantment has kept her alive, but also kept her in the dark about her own life.

Now, with enchantments dissolved and prophecies swinging into action, Selkie finds herself on a series of mad quests to save the people she’s always loved and a life she’s learning to love. But in a supernatural world of increasingly complex alliances and distressingly complicated deceptions, it’s so hard to know who to trust. Does her mother really wish to kill her? Would Will sacrifice her for the sake of the prophecy? And does Ben really love her or is it all an elaborate ruse? In order to survive, Selkie realizes that the key is learning—and accepting—who she really is.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository | Chapters Indigo

Faeries? Yeah, okay. I'm very impartial to these kinds of stories. I've barely read any book about faeries, so I hold no judgement. However, I can say that this review is not going to be entirely positive. It's about 35% positive, just as a fair warning.

This story was not of the original kind like I wanted. That was my first issue. The MIA parent who's shady is over and done with. And even though the idea was cliche, the execution would make or break this story. The execution broke it. I didn't (for a second) like that cliche. It was predictable, eye-rolling and somewhat tiring. To further go down the cliche road, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce a prophecy! Meet a girl with so much power but she doesn't even know it and bam! A prophecy because that's how things work. No one character ever does thing for themselves!

So that got on my nerves. A lot. However, to tip the scale back to zero, here is something I do like. I enjoyed how fast I got through this story. It didn't drag on nor did it make me want to shoot myself or something drastic. Unlike some books, I got through this one pretty quickly, it also helps that this book isn't really long either. The writing was pretty fluid and kept me going. There were moments where I had a full page of description and some info-dumping, but I did what I usually do in those scenarios - I skipped it entirely.
The Girl Who Never Was is a book where when I read it the first time, it seems pretty good. But after mulling the idea over in my brain, the 4 stars go to a three, and the three stars go to a two. I noticed the mistakes afterward, which is something that happens *sometimes*

But the big reason I didn't enjoy this book like I should have is because of the plot. I felt like a lot of the things that happened in this book were pretty poorly planned. The ending was rushed, characters were only used because they needed to move the story along and I didn't like it. If it didn't involve Selkie, you can bet that it wasn't there. Everything revolved around the Main Character, which is fine, but I like to see B-Plots because they add depth to the story. There was no development in the characters that I could feel and I hated hated Ben so much. He didn't make sense and he was kind of a selfish jerk.

Overall, I found this book okay when I read through it, but after thinking about it, found a bunch of flaws. Maybe if I hadn't thought so much, this rating would've been a four star rating. Oh well, these things just happen.

Skylar's Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Website |

Skylar’s first story was a tale of romantic intrigue involving two feuding factions of squirrels. Think “Romeo & Juliet” but with bushy tails and added espionage. She was seven.

Since that time, Skylar’s head has been filled with lots of characters and lots of drama. She is delighted to be able to share some of it with all of you now, because, honestly, it was getting pretty loud and crowded in there.

Skylar is a born-and-bred New Englander, which is why Boston was a natural setting for her debut novel, THE GIRL WHO NEVER WAS. Skylar shares her home with a cardboard cutout of the Tenth Doctor, lots of Mardi Gras beads from the time she spent living in New Orleans, and a harp she’s supposed to be teaching herself to play. She’d like to get a dog.